Harrison makes winning return

An ankle injury had forced Harrison off the road, but up to three hours of training a day at The Warwickshire Golf & Country Club looked to have kept the veteran ticking over and she was up with the leading men soon after the start.

By the two-mile mark she had opened up an 80-metre gap in the ladies’ race on clubmate Monica Williamson, eventually going on to record a time of 32min 40sec and a winning margin of 84 seconds over second-placed finisher Carolyn Wilkinson (Spa Striders).

Williamson was close behind in third place (34:13), with the improving Zara Blower fourth to ensure that Leamington C&AC took the ladies team prize.

Kenilworth Runners’ Rich Simkiss made it a hat-trick of victories in the men’s race, producing a typically assured performance to clock 28:16.

He was followed in second position by Phil Gould, with Stephen Page running well to finish tenth and Richard Green 11th to earn first in the men’s team competition.

Trevor Wilkinson (32:35) was Spa Striders’ leading man in ninth place and second M40.

He was were followed by debutants Jonathan Young (35:10) and Daniel Stannard (36:03), who took 18th and 22nd place, respectively.

Simon Radcliffe (39:44), Jude Baum (41:58) and Julie Heaton (44:21) completed the Striders contingent.

Result (Kenilworth Runners unless stated): 1, Richard Simkiss (28:16); 2, Phil Gould (29:18); 10, Stephen Page (33:03); 11, Richard Green (33:16); Nicki Maritz (40:05); Marie Voice (40:08); Martin Broomfield (41:31); Tom Dable (44:06); Pippa Green (47:08); Pauline Dable (47:48); Paul Buchan (50:18).

Kenilworth Runners’ Rod Goodwin and Matthew Kingston-Lee headed to Nottingham to take part in the Ikano Robin Hood Half Marathon, which followed a new flatter route for 2012.

Kingston-Lee went into the race with low expectations after hip and thigh injuries that hampered his preparations.

He was therefore pleased to run well in spite of increasing pain from around halfway onwards, finishing with his third-fastest half-marathon time of 1:17:56.

In a high quality field, where the race was won by Luka Rotich of Kenya in 1:01:39, Kingston-Lee’s time was good enough to put him 46th of the 6,607 finishers.

Goodwin faced similar issues ahead of the race having suffered issues with his left leg all year and finished just outside 1:45 in 1:45:06, a minute faster than his recent Great North Run time.

Runners’ Carl Hillermann and Andreas Ruhnke headed to the German capital to take part in the 39th BMW Berlin Marathon, with Ruhnke finishing in 4:08:13 and Hillermann in 5:40:34.